


False awakening

by rm_asterisk



Category: Linkin Park
Genre: Gen, Possible Character Death, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26934358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rm_asterisk/pseuds/rm_asterisk
Summary: Chester wakes up. Again and again.
Kudos: 6





	False awakening

**Author's Note:**

> English isn't my first language so sorry for all the mistakes. It's only a sketch but I just felt like writing something like this.  
> Для тех, кто читает меня на русском и не понимает, что происходит: происходит мем. Возможно, вы увидите что-то похожее в одной из моих будущих работ, если я ее допишу, конечно))

He wakes up in the middle of the night, disturbed by a phone call. Anxious thoughts fill his head as he answers in a hoarse voice, "Hello?"  
"Chester Bennington?" a calm but grieving female voice specifies.  
"Yes, what's the matter?" he lifts up on his elbow, noticing as his heart gets ready to jump out of his chest.  
"We're very sorry to say that but... Your friend's gone."  
"Which friend?" it feels like his mind is filling with thick fog. He can't remember anything, neither when he gave his phone number to a hospital nor which of his friends could have gotten there.  
"You should remember," the voice insists, "How did you forget everything?"  
He tries to remember, he really tries but all his attempts end up on nothing. "Maybe it's just a stupid phone prank," he thinks and suddenly wakes up again. 

Realizing it was just a dream, he gets up, puts on his clothes and goes to the studio but an obsessive feeling that someone's missing doesn't let go. He tries to get rid of it, but worthless. It's hard to breathe and a big hole starts growing on a place where his heart used to be. How could he ever forget?

It seems to him that there are less people than necessary in the studio. "Is anyone being late?" he asks but no one understands what he's talking about. Anxious thoughts come again and he nervously pulls his hair back.  
"Come on, you need to remember it." he says to himself but, again, no luck. During the whole rehearseal he feels out of place and by the end of it he's almost shaking because of the irrational fear filling his body. The bandmates ask him if he's alright but he doesn't know how to explain everything he feels to them so he just simply replies, "Yes, don't worry."  
Everything seems to fall apart and he starts to hope that it's just an another lucid dream. It just couldn't be real. And suddenly he appears to be right because the next moment he wakes up again.

Everything looks different now. He lies in an empty bed, the sheets on its another half are crumbled up and this time he knows who exactly is missing.  
"Mike?" Chester asks, wondering, when they had started to sleep together. His question stays unanswered so he slowly gets out of the bed and goes to find his friend.  
Mike's coat hangs in the hall. "So he couldn't go out," thinks Chester, "It's so damn cold outside." But where could he be then? There was no light and sound from the bathroom and anxious thought flood Chester's head again and again.  
"Hey, Mike?" he asks opening the door to the bath and suddenly shuts up because he remembers something that he's been hiding from himself for so long. He remembers the ambulance sirens and a dead body on the floor of this exact bathroom, he remembers waking in the middle of the night a year, or maybe a month, or even a day ago and realizing Mike's gone. He's dead. He died, just died and there was no way Chester could return him.

Chester still stands in the doorway, confused. "It just can't be like this," he thinks as he stares on all the Mike's stuff in the bathroom, his hair gel and his shampoo on the sink. How long have they been standing there, untouched? Chester doesn't know. All he has left to do is hoping it is just an another stupid dream.

He wakes, wakes, wakes up again. He tries to make a move but he can't, he screams but his lips don't make a sound. His body is paralyzed, his mind is filled with dread and everything he begs for is for this hell to be over. Suddenly he feels as someone's soft hand touches his shoulder.

"Hey, Ches?" a worried voice asks. "You fell asleep on a studio sofa again. It's okay. I'm here, can you hear me?"

Chester finds out he can move again. He slowly opens his eyes and sees a concerned Mike's face above his head.

"You've been screaming in your sleep again. Are you okay?" Mike asks, moving back as he sees his friend is finally awake.

"Yes, it's fine," Chester replies but in his mind he is still terrified as hell and only wishes to be left on his own to think about what's just happened. Isn't it just an another dream? He doesn't know. But he wishes it isn't because, unlike other dreams, there's Mike in this one.

**Author's Note:**

> A false awakening is a vivid and convincing dream about awakening from sleep, while the dreamer in reality continues to sleep. (Wikipedia)


End file.
